Sunday, June 6, 2010

And now it is time for our first ever Dear Lillie Contest!!! (And don't forget there is still plenty of time to enter our clutch and pillow give-away. Either scroll down a few posts or click here to enter).

So, for our first contest we are looking for ideas for our screenprinted items. We have several quotes we are planning on using but are always looking for more ideas. Myself, my mom and sisters all LOVE literature. And lately, my dad and even my hubby have become rather avid readers. Even Lillie likes to read:

Here she is at the bookstore

Lillie opening her first Nancy Drew on her birthday

Reading with her Moosie (my mom)

I think the only one we are still working on is my little brother! My hubby just finished two books in the past two weeks - I am soooo jealous. The thing I miss most right now is reading. Since starting Dear Lillie I haven't opened a single book =(. For our family, reading has always been almost as important as breathing for us. Growing up my parents completely spoiled us in one area - books! One of my favorite memories is going to the library! I love bringing Lillie there now. Once we had pretty much read everything in our tiny town's library, they bought us book after book after book. As I am writing this it is making me so sad. Oh, how I miss reading a good book! I used to keep a reading journal and whenever I found a quote or phrase I liked would write it down. I have referred to that for a few of the screenprinted shirts we have already done ("Hope is the thing with feathers..." by Emily Dickinson - one of my favorite poems, and a few quotes and phrases by L.M. Montgomery as well as F.Scott Fitzgerald).

So, we would love any of your ideas for quotes, verses or phrases! Or it doesn't have to be words at all, maybe just an image idea. Basically, any idea you have at all! It can be for kids, babies, or adults. If we end up using your idea you will get TWO free shirts with that quote/image (we plan on carrying a wide array of sizes and colors) and will be able to purchase any more of them for 30% off. There is no limit to this contest. We may end up picking one suggestion or ten. It just depends on how many screenprinted designs we decide to start off with. We may start off with just a few and add more as we go. So please feel free to comment below with any ideas! You can leave as many as you would like. We will contact you ahead of time if we use one of your ideas and then in August when we reopen our shop you can choose your two free shirts!

Love this contest - I add quotes to almost one of my collages that I post each time! I do the same thing as you too, when I read a line that I love, I write it down somewhere and keep it for when I know I will need it.

Do you still make that screen tee w/ the Emily D. quote "Hope is that thing w/ feathers..."? I would LOVE that! We had a window decorating contest at school in support of breast cancer awareness and I used that quote! It was really beautiful!

It is early here and we have a big day ahead of us, but I promise to be back soon to leave some quotes for you!

“Consider the lilies of the field. See how they grow!” Matt. 6:28 (This passage is close to my heart, since I often recited it during my pregnancy with my daughter Lily to remind myself not to worry.)

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12 (This verse would look lovely with a bird silhouette or some other woodland themed image).

“He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.” Psalm 33:7 (I always thought this verse would complement a simple seashell or ocean-theme image).

“As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.” Psalm 42:1 (A silhouette of a fawn could be nice).

This following passage is too long to be put in screenprint, but as a young mother, I find a special affinity for it and thought you find the same:

“But the last one: the baby who trails her scent like a flag of surrender through your life when there will be no more coming after—oh, that’s love by a different name. She is the babe you hold in your arms for an hour after she’s gone to sleep. If you put her down in the crib, she might wake up changed and fly away. So instead you rock by the window, drinking the light from her skin, breathing her exhaled dreams. Your heart bays to the double crescent moons of closed lashes on her cheeks. She’s the one you can’t put down.” The Poisonwood Bible, pg. 382.

My mother used to tell me in high school to "Always be a first rate version of yourself, and never a 2nd rate version of someone else."

I honestly thought it was mom's quote and then she told me it was actually Judy Garland's. Mom was always throwing out quotes to boost my confidence, but that one was extra special.

LOVE the pictures of Lillie! She is such a sweet pea. I especially love those cheeks and her piggy tails. Hope you finally get a chance to read a book soon. Like you I have not had a chance to steal away to read a book in a very long time. xo

I am an avid reader and have loved it ever since I've learned. I really enjoy classic literature! :) Oooo...I have such a penchant for good quotes! In fact, I have a "Word Document" that I'm frequently adding to. Let me share a few!

"Truth.It feels cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body. Cooling a heat that's been burning me up all my life.Truth, I say inside my head again, just for that feeling."— Kathryn Stockett (The Help)

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in." - Mitch Albom (Tuesday's with Morrie)

"You dont love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not"— Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper)

"Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it."— Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper)

"My mother... she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her."— Jodi Picoult

"When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth."— Jodi Picoult (Handle with Care)

"Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it"— Nicholas Sparks (A Walk to Remember)

"I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For who has sight so keen and strong, That it can follow the flight of song- The song from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend."-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ok, sorry, this will be my last post:) I have a friend who is also Queen of Quotes and here are some I gathered from her Facebook page:)

Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is."-Mason Cooley

"The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us."-Quentin Crisp

"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so"-Mark Twain

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."-Mark Twain

"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail..."-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is no power of love so hard to get and keep as a kind voice. Watch it by day as a pearl of great price, for it is worth more than the finest pearl hid in the sea. A kind voice is to the heart like light is to the eye. It is a light that sings as well as shines."-Author Unknown

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."Unknown (I couldn't figure out who it was by, so many different people came up, but then I read that they weren't the authors, so I am submitting as unknown?)

"When I was 5 years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life." -UNKNOWN